Thomas Edgar: (1) Growing Up in a Suffolk Village

Note: The village now known as Preston St Mary was called simply Preston until 1957. Confusingly 'Preston St Mary' was part of the Lancashire city we now think of when someone says 'Preston', although sometimes the Suffolk village appears as Preston (St Mary) - so Googlers need to be careful! In any case, I use both forms and no-one in any post so far has come from or gone to Lancashire.

Up until his father Johnson's death in 1872, the records as I have them suggest Thomas lived a not unusual life of the son of a prosperous tenant farmer. Basically he had some schooling, shot game, and helped on the farm - almost certainly on a part-time basis as a child, and then full-time when he was able.

The setting for his early life was Down Hall Farm, which Johnson and Sarah probably began to rent sometime between 1843 and 1851. Today the farmhouse is a Grade 11 Listed Building; here's the citation:

PRESTON ST MARY BRETTENHAM ROAD 1. 5377 Down Hall TL 95 SW 32/914 23.1.58 II 2 A 16 century-17 century timber-framed and plastered building with a cross wing at the north end. Roof tiled. The primary block is one storey and attics and the cross wing is 2 storeyed with a jettied upper storey on the front. Modern casement windows. Three gabled dormers on the front.[1]

What of the village in which the farm was situated? This is one writer's impression of the area today:

I love this part of Suffolk. It is intensely agricultural, and the narrow lanes seem to meander lazily, although they are no doubt reacting to long lost field and settlement patterns. Preston is a pretty village, with the same feeling of remoteness as its neighbours Thorpe Morieux and Kettlebaston.[2]

As readers of a former post will know, Johnson farmed land in Thorpe Morieux as well as Preston before (and perhaps after) moving into Down Hall, and his wife, Sarah Makin, came from Kettlebaston.

To complete the apparently idyllic scene the River Brett flows through the north eastern part of the village.

The three most important buildings are the Preston Hall - manor house - the pub and the church.

 

Preston Hall, A 16/17 Century Residence
"Preston Hall - geograph.org.uk - 277721" by Robert Edwards. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The pub is named after the fine 'six bells' of the church (see below). It was almost certainly the 'local' of many generations of Edgars:

 The Six Bells, Today

"'The Six Bells' inn, Preston St. Mary, Suffolk - geograph.org.uk - 183264" by Robert Edwards. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons

The church itself stands at the eastern end of the village:

Church of St Mary the Virgin

This and next image from:
https://lavenhamchurch.wordpress.com/preston-st-mary/

It still attracts visitors from around the world because of it extremely rare Decalogue ((ten commandments)) and Royal Arms boards.[3]

If you visit it today you'll see what is mostly a different building to young Thomas: in one of the most dramatic events in an area that might seemed ignored by drama, on the afternoon of Thursday April 23, the church tower - a fine perpendicular structure between 70 and 80 feet high -  collapsed, and the church became 'ruinous'.[4] It had been in a parlous state since being bodged together more than a century before when it had been struck by lighting (on August 24, 1758 to be exact). [5] The authorities had begun work on the staircase, whose rebuilding was urgent, because it's ascent had long been difficult and dangerous because many of the steps had been worn through. They'd made an opening in the steeple near its junction with the nave on the south side ready for a new stairway - a fatal mistake! The mortar had lost all holding power and as soon as the breach was made the upper part of the steeple began to crack 'in a mist alarming manner'.[6] A strong iron girdle had been fixed around the parapet thirty years before in response to previous cracks, but this couldn't withstand the new strains. Most of the east wall of the tower fell, as did some of the south wall, destroying part of the roof of the nave and burying the gallery and the organ. Happily the famous 'six bells' were unharmed - although hanging precariously in the ruins. [7]There were worries about the future of the rest of the tower, but the inhabitants looked in the bright side and considered the collapse 'providential' - what if it had fallen on the previous Sunday? And only a few minutes before the respected churchwardens, Messrs. King and Wright and 'Mr. Gayford of the Hall', had been standing in the danger zone; but they'd gone somewhere else thanks to 'the merciful interposition of Providence'.[8] However, a different newspaper's account makes it clear that they'd noticed mortar falling around them and left the church hastily at that point.[9]

St Mary's was restored through voluntary contributions in 1868. Only the porch and nave walls survive from before this date to remind us of the fine (but precarious) building Thomas grew up with. [10]

The local 'metropolis' was Lavenham, about two and half miles to the south west; the small town still ha some of the best preserved mediaeval buildings in the country. On August 9,1865 the town acquired a brick-built railway station (on the Long Melford-Bury St Edmunds branch line). Elsewhere the railways were transforming local economies, and there were some hopes that this would be the case in the Lavenham distrust, but they came to nothing. By 1901 Preston's population had actually fallen.[11]

It was small enough to start with. In 1851 there were only 74 inhabited houses in Preston; 386 people lived in them.  In 1844, the year after Thomas's birth, there were  9 farmers, 2 corn millers, blacksmith, wheelwright, and a shoe– maker.[12] In 1863 there was a chemist - one H. Armstrong of 8, Church Street, who could be relied on for stocks of the 'surprisingly' efficacious Dr. Locock's pulmonic wafers.[13] In any case, Thomas was coming into a family that had some weight in this tiny community: Johnson was one of the farmers and his son John was one of the millers. In 1868 one William Makin was owner of one of the four manors in the district,[14] so Sarah probably had important relatives - although other 'Makins' were humble farm labourers, so this might not have meant very much.

The index to the register of birth, marriages and Deaths shows that his birth was registered in the first quarter of 1843.  The 1851 Census has him an eight year old schoolboy, living at Down Hall Farm with his family. Johnson farms 270 acres and employs ten labourers. His mother, Sarah, has the help of a servant, Susan Manning, aged 17. His brothers Edmund (28) and Richard (19) are both at home and helping on the farm. In the year of his birth the Church of England built a 'National' School in the village, and this was presumably the one Thomas attended. Ten years before there was a Sunday School with 50 pupils, and if it was still running it's possible he was made to go there too.

Thomas was granted a Game Certificate for 1858 -  a 'general' one for £4. 0s.10d. That was expensive, but without it anyone 'taking, killing or pursuing' game was liable for a £20 fine plus double the Certificate duty.[15] As we shall see in the next post, Thomas's game shooting will give us some clues as to the state of the family in the 1870s.

In the 1861 Census things are pretty much the same at Down Hall Farm, except that Richard has left home (to become a malster), the servant is now Emily Pulson (sic) and she's described as a 'dairy' not a 'house' servant. And Thomas has a niece living with him - Sophia, aged 6.

In 1865 Thomas was elected to Lavenham Farmer's Club - alongside Lord A. Harvey, M.P. -  at their annual dinner. The Secretary pro. tem. ('for the moment') was Rober Edgar.[16] I suspect Robert, who was born in c.1834 and farmed in nearby Thorpe Morieux, was from another branch of our family.

What shape was the family in as Johnson, born in c. 1792, lived his last years? We get indirect evidence from a letter from a hunting enthusiast in a local newspaper. In January 1869 a red deer was pursued by hands for over an hour until it was caught on or near 'an off-hand farm of Mr Edgar's, of Preston'.[17] An off-hand farm is one which the owner doesn't farm himself but puts in a working bailiff. This seems proof of Johnson' continuing prosperity. In  his final sense - 1871 - Thomas's father is 78 and just one year from his death. Sarah is 8 years younger, there's a new servant (Annie Pearl). Thomas - 28 and unmarried - is the only son left  at home and he's got a nephew with him at Down Hall Farm: Richard's son Harry J. Wright Edgar is living with the family.

Johnson is described as 'farmer and owner employing 6 men'. He's only a tenant at Down Hall Farm, but he still owns the land he bought and the mill he bought on it in the middle of the 1840s. In 1861 he was employing 7 labourers and two boys on his 300 acres. I doubt the fall in the number of employees means very much. In nay case, Johnson's son (and Thomas's older brother) Edmund is at Hill Farm in Preston, working 152 acres and employing 5 men and two boys. The family's economic situation looks pretty good on the eve of Johnson's death.

In my next post I'll consider the situation between Johnson's death in 1872 and the disaster that struck the family around the turn of the decade.

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[1] http://www.sevenspots.co.uk/building/down-hall-preston-st-mary/

[2] http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/preston.html

[3] https://lavenhamchurch.wordpress.com/preston-st-mary/

[4] http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/7606

[5] The Bury and Norwich Post, and Suffolk Herald (Bury Saint Edmunds, England), Tuesday, April 28, 1863; pg. 7.

[6] The Ipswich Journal (Ipswich, England), Saturday, May 2, 1863.

[7] The Ipswich Journal (Ipswich, England), Saturday, May 2, 1863.

[8] The Bury and Norwich Post, and Suffolk Herald (Bury Saint Edmunds, England), Tuesday, April 28, 1863; pg. 7.

[9] The Ipswich Journal (Ipswich, England), Saturday, May 2, 1863.

[10] http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/preston.html

[11] https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Data/Sites/1/media/parish-histories/preston_st_mary.pdf

[12] https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Data/Sites/1/media/parish-histories/preston_st_mary.pdf

[13] The Bury and Norwich Post, and Suffolk Herald (Bury Saint Edmunds, England), Tuesday, December 15, 1863; pg. 3

[14] http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SFK/Preston/

[15] The Ipswich Journal (Ipswich, England), Saturday, October 2, 1858; Issue 6230.

[16] The Bury and Norwich Post, and Suffolk Herald (Bury Saint Edmunds, England), Tuesday, October 31, 1865; pg. 7

[17] The Bury and Norwich Post, and Suffolk Herald (Bury Saint Edmunds, England), Tuesday, January 19, 1869.

Sophia Edgar: More Speculation Than Fact

I'm afraid much of this post is mystery and confusion. Let's start with what seems firmly established.

Sophia was Johnson and Sarah's only daughter. I can't find a birth certificate but in the 1841 Census she's listed as 15, the same age as her brother Henry - John and Edmund are both given as 20, which suggests either a busy reproductive schedule or an indifference to exactitude when giving the ages of the children to the Census-taker.

In 1848 an entry in the register shows that Sophia married James Westrop of Lavenham, a small town close to Sophia's home village of Preston St Mary, with some of the best-preserved mediaeval buildings in the country:

The Old Wool Hall, Lavenham

"The Old Wool Hall - Lavenham - geograph.org.uk - 1546706" by Mick Lobb. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons.

James was born in 1810.[1] Their daughter Ann was born in 1849 and died in the next year aged 8 months. She was buried on May 11 at Preston St Mary.[2]

That's about it as far as clarity goes.

I suspect that Sophia died in the next 11 years. But when? Well, I can't find any sign of her or James in the 1851 Census so there's no clue there. In the 1861 Census a widower, James Westrop, born in Lavenham, is recorded living St Pancras, London looked after by his unmarried sister Ann (his 'housekeeper'). This James is a retired draper. His age is transcribed (by Ancestry.com) as 50, which ties in with the James who married Sophia - but it might as well be 60 - the '0' is clear but not the first digit. This James died on May 1863 and probate for effects less than £100 was granted to Ann.[3] One genealogist on Ancestry.com merges this figure with a James Westrop who married in St Dunstan in the West, London in 1836 - but this James Westrop was born in Essex. On the other hand, the James born in Lavenham in 1810 doesn't seem to have a sister Anne. But then again I can't find any James born in Lavenham who DID have a sister Ann.

To add to the confusion: in the 1891 Census the man who's called James Edgar in 1881 is called James Westrope (sic) Edgar. There were a lot of Westrops in Suffolk, but James didn't marry one: in 1884 he united with Elvina Burrows.[4]

And probably irrelevantly a 'Sophia Edgar' aged 6 turns up in Johnson's household in 1861. She's listed as 'granddaughter' and her birth was registered in 1855 in Thingoe (Bury St Edmunds, where Richard was malting). Her father is unknown, but perhaps she was named in honour of a dead sister?

At this point the researcher throws his hands in the air and hopes for a lucky break in the future.

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[1] http://historyofsuffolk.co.uk/cosford/lavenham/d295.html#P10006

[2] http://historyofsuffolk.co.uk/cosford/preston/d54.html

[3] Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.

[4] FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index, 1837-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.

The Many Lives of Richard Edgar

Up until 1871 Richard's progress through the documents is not an unusual one.

There's no birth certificate - registration wasn't compulsory at the time - but in the 1841 Census he's listed as fourth  and then youngest child of Johnson and Sarah and his age is given as ten, so he was born in about 1831. In 1851 he's given as 19 and his employment is the same as his older brother Edmund's - this is almost illegible but it certainly begins 'farmer' and my guess is that what follows is something like 'employed on father's farm'.

In 1860 Richard married Sarah Elizabeth Wright of Bury St Edmunds and the Census of 1861 finds them living in Bury, Richard 29 and Sarah 19 - so she was born in about 1842.

Guildhall, Bury St Edmunds
"Bury St Edmunds - The Guildhall" by Keith Evans. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bury_St_Edmunds_-_

He's now a 'malster and merchant'. Once again Wikipedia comes to the rescue of those of us who don't know as much about nineteenth century Edgar working practises as we should:

Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as "malting". The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air.[1]

What's the point of that then? Well:

Malted grain is used to make beer; whisky; malted shakes; malt vinegar....(and stuff like Maltesers -the chocolate with the less fattening centre - that Richard never dreamt were possible).

Bury is still a centre for malting and brewing, so Richard's malted barley presumably ended up as beer.

Barley on the floor of a traditional malthouse
"Highland park malting floor" by Lakeworther - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

The family is living at 85-88 Risbygate Street and next door in the Malster's Cottage is another malster and his family. I think this enables us to take a good guess as to where Richard did his work:


Malthouse Project
Copyright Oast House Archives, licensed for re-use under a Creative Commons License:
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1444197

The Malthouse Project is based in  converted seventeenth century malt house in Risbygate Street, so the original building must be a candidate for Richard's workplace.

So far so good. Richard starts off on the family farm (probably), learns a useful trade, marries and raises a family. The evidence of the 1881 Census entry for Sarah's household and of birth registers enables us to reconstruct their children at the time of the 1871 Census, all born in Bury St Edmunds: Walter Rossiter, born in the first quarter of 1873,  Alice Mary born in the first quarter of 1867 and Frederick William, born in early 1870. But I think that they also had a son in 1866 or thereabouts: Harry James Wright Edgar. I'll explain why I think this in a moment.

In the 1871 Census Richard, still a malster, is recorded as a visitor at his brother Edmund's Hill Farm in Preston St Mary - which means he spent the night of April 2 there. There's nothing necessarily strange about that, nor about the fact that I can find no sign of Sarah or the children Walter, Alice and Frederic in the 1871 Census. Such absences are not that uncommon and can be caused, for example, by faulty modern search engines, illegible Census-taker handwriting or gaps in the records. But then there's another Census entry that suggests the possibility of a family problem: Harry J(ames) Wright Edgar, aged 5 turns up with his grandfather Johnson Edgar at Down Hall Farm. The family trees on Ancestry.com are split as to Harry[2]: one tree has him as Thomas's child (which would make him a part of our branch of the Edgars) but I think the other trees[3] are correct and that he's the son of Richard and Sarah come to live with his grandfather at Down Hall Farm. My evidence for this is twofold: firstly the middle name 'Wright' - that was Sarah's maiden name. Secondly, in the 1911 Census he's recorded boarding with his 'brother' Frederick William.

Harry's presence at Down Hall Farm might mean financial or marital problems for his family, or they might mean nothing of the sort. Johnson was prosperous, he no longer had a young family, and he might have been doing no more than giving a favourite grandchild a comfortable home

If there was a marital problem in 1871, it was presumably temporary, as Richard and Sarah's son, William (not to be confused with Frederick William) had his birth registered in the first quarter of 1873. Further indication that the couple were still together in 1873 is a record that shows that Walter Rossiter Edgar entered the Guildhall Feoffment school (Bury St Edmunds) in 1873 - his father's name was given as Richard (the family's address was in Chalk Lane.[4]

But now we must pursue the rather surprising course of Richard's progress through the post 1873 documents.

First of all, he vanishes. The man who's been making malt in Suffolk and getting about ten years older every time a decennial census was taken disappears from the records.

But in 1881 a Richard Edgar - the second - also a malster and born in Preston St Mary, shows up in Roath, Glamorgan married to a woman called Charlotte. She's 30, born in Newport (Wales) and works as a seamstress.


Newport, South Wales
"Newport UK location map" by Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

This can't be OUR Richard can it? When we last saw him ten years ago he was 'married'- that was recorded in the relevant column - and we know his wife was Sarah. Divorce papers aren't available online and I've found no certificate of his marriage to Charlotte. But lots of people have claimed, in hotel registers, ships manifests and all other sorts of documents as well as census forms, to be married when they're not, so it's not this that means he can't be OUR Richard - look at the age. He's 40, which would be a pretty impressive achievement for a man born in 1831/32.

In 1891 Richard Edgar - the third -  also lives in Wales but at a new location and with a different profession. He's a caretaker living in Cardiff. He and Charlotte still have no children - just a visitor. But here's an amazing thing: Richard is now 58, having aged 18 years since the last census. Charlotte is 41, so her aging process has remained more or less normal.

In 1901 the two Welsh Richard Edgars have done a vanishing act, just like their Suffolk predecessor. But there's still a Richard Edgar - the fourth; he's a barman at a pub, visiting friends in Birmingham with - Charlotte Edgar. The friends are the Williams family, so there does seem a possible Welsh connection even though these Williamses weren't born there. How old is this Richard you might well be asking?  He's aged 54, which makes him four years younger than the second Welsh Richard Edgar was ten years ago and about 16 years younger than the Bury St Edmunds Richard Edgar would have been. And another interesting point: the first three Richard Edgars were all born in Suffolk, and this fourth Richard also had an eastern counties origin - in his case in Norfolk. And Charlotte, whose now 48 so her aging seems as erratic as her husband's, also has a different but similar birthplace: the first Charlotte (who was with the second and third Richards) was born in Newport, while the second Charlotte (with the fourth Richard) saw the light of day in Newtown, which is still in Wales but about 70 miles away.

Newtown, central Wales
"Powys UK location map" by Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

Confused? I think you're meant to be. For a start, Richard (if all these four incarnations are in fact the same man) is the only case I've yet come across of someone who was away from home on more than one Census day. The first time doesn't seem of any obvious significance, but the second time - and considering they both give wrong birth places yet seem compelled to keep some element of truth - well, it's almost like he and Charlotte don't want people to know where they are.

But things don't finish with the 1901 Census. There's a fifth Richard Edgar.

This one died in Birmingham aged 62 in the last quarter of 1904 - remember that the fourth Richard Edgar was in Birmingham three years earlier but apparently eight years younger.

While all this was going on (irrelevantly if you think that the Richard Edgar in our family simply disappears from the records after 1873) what's happening to Sarah Elizabeth and her children? That, as the saying goes, is another story.

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malt

[2] http://person.ancestry.co.uk/tree/60181970/person/30109594330/facts

[3] e.g. http://person.ancestry.co.uk/tree/16798471/person/18593884912/facts; http://person.ancestry.co.uk/tree/21782483/person/1136302178/facts

[4] National School Admission Registers & Log Books 1870-1914. 

John Edgar: Miller and Worried Parent

John Edgar was Johnson and Sarah's eldest child. He was born in Preston St. Mary in 1820 - his christening was on May 12 and interestingly his mother's name is given as 'Hannah' on the transcription of this record, which suggests that his grandmother (neé Hannah Osborn) played a prominent role at the event![1] He's still living at home in 1841 and probably working at the family mill.  A record of 1844 has him at Johnson's original mill in Preston St Mary,[2] and he probably transferred to the new mill that his father built in 1846. [3]

In the first quarter of 1843 he married Mary Ann Norman of Bury St Edmunds; she appears in the 1861 Census return as one year younger than her husband.

The 1851 Census finds his slightly younger brother, Edmund, still living at home. It took me some time to track down John in that Census as his name is mis-transcribed 'Tom' on Ancestry.com. But he's there, living in the Preston mill, and employing one man in the business. He also has an apprentice and a domestic servant. This seems to be the height of John's prosperity. He and Mary Ann have a seven year old son, Jonson (sic but probably Johnson) Edmund (2) and James who's an angelic three months (watch young James carefully). Another record has John still at the Preston mill in 1853,[4] but this mill had a new occupant two years later. What happened to John? The 1861 Census gives us an idea.

In that year John is a miller in Bury St Edmunds about 14 miles north of Preston St Mary. He and Mary Ann have four children (Jonson/Johnson has either died or left home): Edmund (12), James (10), Joseph (8) and Hannah (1). The three older were born in Preston and only young Hannah in Bury. The family are living in Bury, perhaps at number 222 St. Andrews St, but the street naming (which starts off as Cemetery Rd) is confusing  (to me at least). My guess is that John left the Preston mill in about 1854 but his wife went back to Johnson and Sarah for help with giving birth, which, if correct, suggests that the couple didn't leave because of a family row.

 Street Scene, Bury St. Edmunds, c. 1880

"Westgate House Westgate Street Bury St Edmunds" by Unknown - http://www.burypastandpresent.org.uk/bg/BRO_K505_0036.jpg. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons -

There were five windmills in Bury at this time,[5] and I don't know which one John tenanted. One of these mills is last mentioned in 1867, so maybe it was that one, because in 1871 John's still a miller but he's moved again, this time to one of the four mills in Stowmarket, about 15 miles south east of Bury (and close to the former Edgar home village of Combs).

That means he and Mary Ann were almost certainly living there at the time of the disaster that leads off the 'Historic Events' section of the Wikipedia article on the town:

Disaster struck Stowmarket on 11 August 1871, when an explosion at a local gun cotton factory claimed twenty-four lives and left seventy five injured.[6]

Thanks: http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/gallery_10_things_you_might_not_know_about_stowmarket_1_3583335

Only Hannah, now at school, is living with John and Mary Ann in 1871. But something interesting's happening: James, now about 18 and a journeyman butcher, has left home and is living in the same street as his parents - they're at 188, Lime Tree Place and he's a lodger at no. 126. It's easy to see that an 18 year old then or now might want to leave the parental home -but to become a lodger just down the road? That's unusual and there's a possible explanation.

At the Stowmarket Petty Session on October 22 James Edgar was committed for trial on two charges of embezzlement.[7] He'd been taken into custody the day before.

In January 1868 James pleaded guilty at the Suffolk Assizes to two acts of embezzlement the previous October: on the 12th. he'd obtained the sum of 3s 7d. and six days later another 5s. 2d. The victim was Edward Parish, his 'master'. I can't yet confidently identify Edward Parish but I suspect he was the man of that name born in Ipswich in 1828 to non-conformist parents. Religious belief would account for his comment that he had taken James knowing he was not of 'the best of characters' in the hope of reforming him. It seems that even at the age of 16 he had a bad reputation, which he had fully justified by waiting only two weeks before robbing his employer. In passing sentence the magistrate commented that this was a bad case and that the court felt it couldn't take his youth into account. He handed out six calendar months imprisonment with hard labour.[8] Parish had acted as prosecutor, just as Johnson Edgar had when he too had been embezzled by an employee back in 1837.[9] It must have mortified the old man to learn that his grandson was a prisoner.

James's entry in the court register shows that this was his first offence - no previous misdemeanours or felonies.[10] James served his time in Ipswich County Gaol, and his prison record states his level of education as 'imp', which it seems is a possibly inaccurate attempt by a warden to estimate his ability to read and write as 'imperfect'.[11] The jail housed both men and women; one wing was the prison, the other the lunatic asylum. Often described as well-run, and humane, it shut in 1930 and was demolished in 1933.[12]

Ipswich County Jail, c.1840-1850 by Claude Lorraine Richard Wilson Nursey

Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service

Any hope that James had learnt his lesson was quickly quashed. He presumably came out in July or August 1868[13] but before the end of the year he was in trouble again. In the early hours of Sunday, November 29, he and forty to fifty others had been drunk and riotous in Stowmarket's Stowupland Streeet. James had been in a fight when P. C. Barker arrived, the officer told the court, and the other man had run away. Barker had tried to get James to go too, but he refused and was arrested. Also appearing in court was another of the group, George Reynolds, who, Barker claimed, had been misbehaving even though his father had just died. Both he and James were 'very troublesome characters', but 'Edgar was the worst'.This opinion was reflected in the sentences: Reynolds was fined 5s. and costs, or seven days in prison if he couldn't pay, while James was hit for 15s plus costs, with a fortnight if he failed to find the money.Reynolds paid at once, James was allowed a week to come up with his. (Bury and Norwich Post, December 1, 1868, 5).

So it's possible that James was lodging close to his parents because they refused to have him at home. Nevertheless, it seems that he did now change his ways, as I've not found any record of his appearance in the justice system after 1868.

John died in the Cosford registration district in  the April-June quarter of 1874. This includes Preston St Mary, so perhaps he went to his brother Thomas at Down Hall Farm in his last illness or perhaps he inherited something after Johnson's death in 1872 that brought him home - I'll discuss this issue in a future post.

What happened to Mary Ann and James?

In 1881 James was still a butcher and lodging with his aunt the widowed Louisa Williams in Stowmarket. I can't find Mary Ann in the 1881 census but by 1891 John has died and she's a widow living on her own means in the family of  - her son James Westrop(e) Edgar at 98 Union Street, Stowmarket. Although we can't rule out a set of coincidences, this seems to be none other than the man who we're following, who for some reason is now using his middle name as well. In 1884 he'd married Elvina Burrows. He's described  as a general labourer so the butcher's trade obviously stopped yielding him a living. By 1901 he's turned to bricklaying - still in Stowmarket, but Mary Ann, now aged 80, is no longer living with him; she's a lodger with (Ms.) Zilpah Johnson - in Stowupland Street where her son was arrested for disorderly behaviour. Mary Ann died in the Stow registration district in the first quarter of 1910.[14] In 1911 James was still a builder and was living at 15 Union Street in Stowmarket. He and Elvina have had 13 children, 7 still living. James died in the last quarter of 1918 in the Stow registration district.

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[1] Ancestry.com. England & Wales Christening Records, 1530-1906 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008, and

[2] http://www.suffolkmills.org.uk/newsletters/072%20November%201998.pdf

[3] http://edgarfamilyintheworldblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-wealth-of-edgars-johnson-and-his.html

[4] http://www.suffolkmills.org.uk/newsletters/072%20November%201998.pdf

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_windmills_in_Suffolk

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stowmarket

[7] Bury and Norwich Post, October 22, 1867, 8.

[8] Ipswich Journal, January 4, 1868.

[9] http://edgarfamilyintheworldblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/johnson-edgar-1-johnson-has-his-day-in.html

[10] Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 [database on-line]. 

[11] http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/forum/topic7073.html

[12]https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8VbdNsRAvPsC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=ipswich+county+gaol+well-run&source=bl&ots=AvdQWZ5ld1&sig=mqBYibUf0iUNPyDAwJjxb99X-uA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAWoVChMI8KjjtNbdxwIVQjYaCh1voAEe#v=onepage&q=ipswich%20county%20gaol%20well-run&f=false

[13] Unless he was held in prison from the day of his arrest (October 21) and his sentence included time served.

[14] http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=bmd%2fd%2f1910%2f1%2faz%2f000110%2f070

Henry and Sarah Edgar Cross the Stour

As I showed in my first post,[1] our branch of the Edgars spent over half a millennium in the same tiny corner of Suffolk. It wasn't until the Great Disaster of 1880/1881 - the subject of a future post - that we began to scatter all over the world. But one Edgar pioneer actually left Suffolk voluntarily, as it were, some time before 1861. Mind you, he didn't get very far.

Henry Edgar was Johnson and Sarah's second boy and third child.  He was born in about 1826 - the 1841 Census, which finds him still living at home, lists Henry as 15. On June 21, 1849 he married Sarah Kensey (or Kinsey) of Felsham. Felsham's about 5 miles to the north of Preston, and my guess is he met her because he'd become the tenant of a mill there, although I can't be sure of the order of events because I don't know when he took over the tenancy. Sarah was born in Felsham in the period 1821-3 - her age seems to fluctuate in the different census returns!

As I explained in my post on Johnson's economic activities, the family were windmill owners as well as tenant farmers. Henry's elder brother ran Johnson's mil in Preston St Mary, before moving to one in Bury St Edmunds- I'll trace his career and problems as a parent in my next post. At some point in the 1840s Henry decided to follow the same path. I think this must have been before March 1849:

Robert Lee, aged 16, stealing 2 sovereigns, the property of Mr. Edgar, of Felsham, 14 days' imprisonment and to be whipped.[2]

 The first definite record of Henry's work is an advertisement which appeared on July 24, 1850 on page three of the Bury and Norwich Post:

FELSHAM SUFFOLK

TO BE LET

A POST WINDMILL

WITH two Patent and two Common Sails, two pair of French Stones, Flour-Mill Jumper, and Going-gears complete. A very commodious Round-house, together with a convenient DWELLING-HOUSE, stable, Cart-shed, &, now in the occupation of Mr. EDGAR, whose tenancy expires on the 11 October next.

The above Property is situated within 8 miles of Bury, and 6 of Stowmarket.

For further particulars, enquire of Mrs. Barnes, Boxhall.

The first point to  note is that as his tenancy was expiring in October 1850 he must have been there at least a year before that, possibly up to five. That windmill is first mentioned in 1824 and in 1867 it was demolished and the milling moved to Gedding.[3] A little research online helps clarify the nature of the building and its operation:

The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. The defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. [4]

Post Mill (not Henry's)

"Pitstone-windmill.600px". Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pitstone-windmill.600px.jpg#/media/File:Pitstone-windmill.600px.jpg

That issue of moving the sails so they can take advantage of the changing winds is one of the most important aspects of milling. 'Common sails' were the first type of sail and go back to the middle ages. There were different kinds, but what characterised them all was that the mill had to be stopped to adjust them. 'Patent sails' were a relatively recent invention (1813) and could be adjusted without stopping the mill. 'French stones' are used for milling wheat. A 'jumper' enabled three or four different grades of flour to be produced. 'Roundhouses' were built around the supporting trestles to give them protection and also provide storage space. I don't know what 'Going-gears' are, but they're mentioned in almost all the historical windmill adverts I've found online, so they were obviously standard equipment. There's an excellent website on the history of Felsham which provides a photomontage that enables us to get a sense of the windmill Henry was tenanting and its place in the village landscape:

http://felshamhistory.blogspot.co.uk/

The author tells us that the mill would have rivalled the church tower in height and must have dominated this part of the village. Next to the mill is the Live and Let Live beer-house on Upper Green - presumably Henry's local, as future developments will. prove he was no teetotaller.

In any case, either the owners failed to find a tenant who'd pay a higher rent, or Henry himself agreed to stump up more. In the 1851 Census he's still the Felsham miller living at 5, the Green, and employing one man. Although he's described as 'head' of the household there was nobody else at home for him to rule over. Where was Sarah? She was visiting her father William, 67 years old and a widower. He kept the Bell Inn in Felsham, which might have given her husband ideas, as we shall see. Sarah's mother had died some time between the 1841 and 1851 Censuses.

When we next find Henry and Sarah they've arrived in what is generally regarded as 'the heart of Constable country'.

 John Constable - Self Portrait

"ConstableSelfPortrait". Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ConstableSelfPortrait.png#/media/File:ConstableSelfPortrait.png

Dedham Vale 1802

"Constable DeadhamVale". Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Constable_DeadhamVale.jpg#/media/File:Constable_DeadhamVale.jpg

Unfortunately we can't be sure when Henry took the momentous step of crossing the Stour and becoming a publican in Dedham which is just on the Essex side of the river. 

River Stour running through Dedham Vale

"Cmglee Manningtree River Stour" by Cmglee - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cmglee_Manningtree_River_Stour.jpg#/media/File:Cmglee_Manningtree_River_Stour.jpg

Another family is linked to the Sun Inn between 1851-1855,[5] so it must have been after that. The first definite reference to Henry as landlord comes in 1859.[6] The 1861 Census has Henry and Sarah keeping the Sun with the help of John Knock, an ostler aged 65,[7] and the financial support of two married lodgers. Adverts in the local papers make it clear that the landlords of the Sun also supplemented their income by hiring out 'the Large Room' for auctions.

Trade directories link him to the Inn in 1862, 1867, 1870, 1871, 1874[8] so I think we can assume that he stayed at the Sun continuously until his death in 1877. He's also on a list of residents in 1863, and from this we can get an idea of the competition:

Inns and Taverns
Anchor, Robert Smith
Compasses, John Hicks Symonds
Gun, Samuel Askew
Lamb, Samuel Osbome
Marlborough Head, Mary White
Rose and Crown, Arthur George Saunders
Sun Inn, Henry Edgar[9]

The Sun is a splendid coaching Inn in Dedham High Street, with its origins in the fifteenth century. The seventeenth century external staircase was considered a fine feature,[10] as was the view from the courtyard:

(S)ometimes the local church-tower comes in, across the roof-tops, in a partly benedictory and wholly sketchable way, as at the village of Dedham, near Colchester, where the yard of the “Sun” inn and the church-tower combine to make a very fine composition. A relic of the bygone coaching days of Dedham remains, in the small oval spy-hole cut through the wall on either side of the tap-room bay-window, and glazed, commanding views up and down the village street, so that the approach of coaches coming either way might be clearly seen.[11]

You can see that church in the background of another Constable picture:

Dedham Lock and Mill, 1817
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/constable-dedham-lock-and-mill-n02661

But I doubt that the Edgars moved because of the historical associations of the Inn or the romance of the surrounding countryside. We can only guess as to their motives - which might have been as simple as another attempt to raise rent; but what's certain is that the life of a miller was uncertain and the labour was heavy. Periods of enforced idleness (with no earnings) were followed by ones of continuous labour, everything dependent on the whim of the winds. While no-one would claim a Victorian landlord had it easy, the life of the proprietor of a well-established might well have seemed easier and more secure than that of a miller.

In any case, as the years go by we catch a few glimpses of Henry and Sarah.

The first of these, in 1868, brings one of those moments that family historians love: Henry's history links up with that of the broader story of our country. In 1867 the Tory Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, determined to take what one of his own supporters called 'a leap in the dark' in order to steal a march on William Gladstone's Whigs (soon to become the Liberals), gave the vote to most male 'heads' of households in the towns. Henry Edgar's name appears as one of these 'New Voters' on the 1868 electoral register.[12]

The next year shows us a scene, that in one form or another, probably happened a lot. Every year Dedham held a two-day fair,[13] and like other such gatherings in the region this seems to have attracted people keen to get very drunk indeed:

About 2 a.m. on the morning of April 1, 1869 on the second day of the fair, the landlord of the Sun Inn called P. C. Murrells because 4 miscreants were drunk and behaving riotously. They refused to leave. Each was fined 5s. with 9s. 6d. costs, or two weeks.[14]

In the 1871 Census  Henry and Sarah have one servant and an ostler. Dedham's development is typical of nineteenth century Britain. After the construction of the Great Eastern railway in the 1840s the town, which had no station, became a 'social backwater',[15] and no doubt the trade in coach passengers went into gradual decline. The Inn gave the Edgars employment for the rest of their lives, but the evidence of the probate summaries of their wills suggests it was at best a very modest prosperity they enjoyed.

Henry's died  at the Inn on August 15, 1877,  aged 53;[16] he left his wife less than £450.[17]  Sarah was obviously a strong-minded woman as she took over the difficult task of managing a Victorian Inn on her own. Trade directories link her to the Inn in 1878 and 1882,[18] and in the 1881 Census she was employing a live-in barmaid. She had one lodger, who was also her nephew, Jeremiah Pryke (an unemployed engineer), and a visitor.

Sarah had to cope with the efforts of the Church of England Temperance Society which was at work in Dedham in 1882 (and perhaps before), but happily with little effect. In 1895 there were 10 inns, about one for every 150 inhabitants.[19] I suspect Sarah's last years were rather sad though. She died on July 22, 1883 leaving a personal estate of £150 5s. 6d. Bertha Jarrold, spinster of Dedham, was the sole executrix.[20] Bertha was that live-in barmaid in the 1881 Census, and she was then aged 21 - so Sarah, who had no children, also seems to have had no other family or close friends of her own age. Bertha didn't take over the Sun though; later that year one Mr. Page was landlord.[21]

So ended the first Edgar colonisation of Essex. But, as Sarah was spending her last years hosting the Sun, another move into the county - this time enforced by economic necessity - was already taking place.

Note:

For an update on the Sun Inn, see:

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2022/apr/01/pub-walk-the-sun-inn-dedham-essex-constable

---

[1] http://edgarfamilyintheworldblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-early-history-of-edgars.html

[2] Bury and Norwich Post and East Anglian, March 21, 1849.

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_windmills_in_Suffolk

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_mill

[5] http://pubshistory.com/EssexPubs/Dedham/sun.shtml

[6] http://www.camulos.com/inns/2015part4refs.pdf

[7] There's a question mark here: the street number (9) is different to later Censuses (40) and the buildings in the street are also different. There was a 'Gun Inn' in Dedham, but the details don;t match up either. As the Edgars are linked to the Sun Inn in 1859 and 1862, I've assumed that's where they were in 1861.

[8] http://pubshistory.com/EssexPubs/Dedham/sun.shtml

[9] http://www.historyhouse.co.uk/placeD/essexd08d.html

[10] http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924015353463/cu31924015353463_djvu.txt

[11] Charles G. Harper, The Old Inns of Old England, Volume 2, 1906, 223-225.

[12] Ancestry.com. UK, Poll Books and Electoral Registers, 1538-1893 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

[13] http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol10/pp154-161

[14] Essex Standard, 16 April 1869, 6.

[15] http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol10/pp154-161#h3-0003

[16] Essex Standard, 31 August, 1877, 5.

[17] Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.

[18] http://pubshistory.com/EssexPubs/Dedham/sun.shtml

[19] http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol10/pp154-161#h3-0003

[20] Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.

[21] Essex Standard, Suffolk Gazette and Eastern Counties Advertiser, 15 December 1883, 2.